Please Explain
by Rosae-Sif
Summary: Basically this is Eridan who has a lot of grubs for reasons that are becoming known. Eridan is mildly out of character and hoarding grubs. Everyone is confused and this is mostly something I wrote for myself. Chapter 2 will be up soon.
1. This is how it began

A/N:

None of the grubs in this are cannon grubs, they're just nameless plot devices. None of the stuff in this is even a little cannon and I am totally aware that Eridan is OOC. This was largely self-indulgent and very crackish. Just be okay with it.

Rather than using all their typing quirks, I only did ones that come out as accents, like Eridan's and Sollux's lisp.

"Do you want to explain what the shell is going on here?"

"Do you wwant to explain wwhy the hell you came into my hivve wwhen I told absolutely nevver to do that?"

"Don't change the subject!"

"I didn't change the subject, you changed the subject. I wwalked in here to find that all of you had decided to come into my hivve uninvvited and ask you wwhat shell you wwere doin' in my hiwwe and you started yellin' at me!"

That was all that could be distinguished before shouting arose from all 12 of the trolls who were now standing in Eridan's hive.

But let's back up a little, shall we? I'm sure you'd like to understand what's going on here.

You see today was the violet trolls wiggling day and despite Eridan having forbidden Feferi or any other troll from entering his hive, the imperial had wanted to throw her moirail a surprise party. She had dismissed his constant warnings for others to keep away from his hive as him being grouchy and gathered the other 10 reluctant trolls to help her. Even Sollux had gotten roped into it.

They had all made their way across the sea on a small ship, just as the sun had set, to Eridan's little island with some decorations, some delicious looking snacks and a couple of Gamzee's pies which had somehow managed to sneak on board. Feferi had ensured that he would be out working at the time, having told him that Glub-Glub was being particularly fussy and would require more food than usual, so that they would have the perfect cover to slip in and prepare.

That was the plan anyways, however, said plan had grown wings and soared out the metaphorical window to be eaten by a metaphorical chirpbeast, when they opened the door to find a little violet blooded troll coddling a lime grub. Feferi, who was at the head of the group froze. The little wiggler locked eyes with her for all of about two seconds before they hugged the grub to themselves and took off into the depths of the hive. 

Grumbling arose from the other's behind her as they tried to figure out why she was just standing in the doorway. She stayed frozen for a few more seconds before starting and attempting to run into the hive after the little troll.

Feferi made it about two steps before Sollux managed to reach out and grab her shoulder.

"FF, whath going on?"

Before she could answer, the wiggler from before had come back in, now without the grub but holding what appeared to be a small gun.

Both Feferi and Sollux froze this time, neither really understand what was happening. Said freezing lasted for about two seconds before Sollux managed to collect his thoughts enough to summon his psionics to pull the gun out of the little one's hands.

The violet wiggler seemed shocked and tried to reach for the gun, but the psionics kept it out of his reach. Feferi and Sollux looked at each other, neither quite knew what to do about the little thing.

After a few more seconds of Sollux keeping the gun away from the little wiggler, it seemed that the trolls behind the two of them had had enough.

"Alright, I don't know what the fuck is going on with you two in there but I'm coming in!" Karkat yelled as he pushed into the room. He stopped when he saw the wiggler, but unlike the other two he didn't stay frozen for very long. "What the fuck is going on here?! Why is there a fucking wiggler in Eridan's hive?!" Yelled the red-blooded troll before he launched into a fully blown rant which served only to confuse the troll behind him who were now also trying to make their way inside to figure out what was going on.

The wiggler seemed to figure out pretty quickly that he was outnumbered and had little hope of getting his gun back, so he fled back into the narrow passageways of the hive.

Kanya actually attempted to go after the little one, but she had been guarding the snacks near the back of the group and was unable to get through the crowd.

For a short length of time, the trolls all jumbled about in Eridan's entry, all trying to figure out whether the wiggler had somehow managed to wander in or if Eridan, was in fact, dead and his hive had been taken over. This period of discussion was short-lived, as the owner of the hive had finished his duties early and decided to return home.

When Eridan approached his hive, he notice right away that something was wrong due to the boat that most certainly not his that was currently stationed along his island's shore. Grabbing Ahab's Crosshairs from it's sheath, he reached the shore and dismounted his lucis before giving it instructions. "Go find the grubs and try a' get them out'a the hive."

Proceeding with care, the sea dweller slunk up the steps to the house. Peering in from the side of his doorway, he looked on with confusion at what he saw. There appeared to be a large group of young trolls in his hive, Feferi being the one that stood out, but after a moment of listening to them he quickly regionalized several others.

Eridan pulled himself out from behind the wall and proceed to march in, causing the halt to the conversation.

Now that you understand exactly what's going on, let's get on with the story, shall we?

"WILL EVERYONE SHUT UP." Roared Karkat after close to a minute of confusion and shouting. It was enough to get everyone to be quiet, for a few seconds at least. Once those seconds were gone, Kanya chose to speak up in an attempt to halt any further argument.

"Eridan, while I understand you are quite upset we are in your hive without your permission. We only came here in an attempt to celebrate your wiggling day with you, however it appears that there are one if not more wigglers hiding in your hive."

That got Eridan to stop in his tracks. He seemed to get flustered for a few moments, his aural

fins flutter for a second before he regained his composure and answered.

"Right, all the more reason for you guys to leavve. Clearly I havve an infestation and I need to do some cleanin'. You can go noww."

Feferi, however, was having none of it. Glaring him down, she stepped forward and started chewing him out.

"Oh no you don't mister, you and I both know it would be almost impossible for a grub, let only two to get out here. Not to mention the fact that the wiggler knew where to find your guns. I've seen how you hide those things. Now explain why the hell you're keeping grubs hidden away in your hive!"

Eridan met her glare for all of about twenty tense seconds before he figured out that he had little hope of winning.

Grumbling under his breath at her, Eridan resigned from their staring contest with a roll of his eyes and launched into an explanation.

When it had started he really hadn't meant for it to happen. That's how most of these sorts of things start don't they? One day you're minding your own business, hunting Lucus like any good orphaner and the next you find that you've killed the caretaker of a violet sea troll just like yourself. Well, actually, this one's a bit quieter than you.

He had been out hunting like normal, and managed to take down a whale Lucus that had been swimming away from it's pod, he had originally thought it to be a wild one. However, when he was dragging the kill back towards Glubglub, who was a ways off. Something proved him wrong. His eyes had been focused on keeping watch and not on the rope that was attached to the whale. It was a shame really because if he had been looking at it he would have noticed the angry, violet grub that was slowly but surely making it's way towards him.

Now, what you have to realize about grubs is that their teeth are incredibly sharp as it is basically their only defense against predators or other grubs. So when said sharp teeth were dug into his hindquarters with little intention of release, you can imagine that it hurt. A lot. The elder troll screamed as best he could underwater, all the while flailing violently. The flailing upset Seahorsedad who in turn also began to move in attempt to escape whatever invisible force was attack and all in all nobody was happy. To be fair that's how most things work out on Alterina.

Finally, and with much difficulty, Eridan managed to dislodge the grub from his rear-end and hold it out at arms length while it squirmed and tried to get some sort of grip on him. Eridan bit his lip as he looked at the little thing, part of him was scream to toss it back into the current like a true orphaner, but another little part of him looked into frosted lavender that were narrowed in anger and saw a little bit of himself in them.

Or maybe he was crazy. That could do it also.

Whatever it was that drove him to what he did wasn't important, what was is that after a few second more of staring, he moved one of his hands to pap the wiggler on the cheek. The grub froze and looked at him with something between shock and reproachfulness. At this point in time, Eridan had absolutely no idea what he was doing, he should have already doomed the damn thing but for some reason he hadn't, and even as he was curling the little thing under his arm for the journey back to his hive he was promising himself that as soon as they were back he would kill the damn thing.

He was lying.

And that was the perfectly reasonable start to his explanation to the 11 other trolls now gathered in his hive for what had formerly been a planned surprise party to celebrate his wriggling day before the others had discovered that his hive was in fact, filled with little trolls.


	2. Bright Red

**A/n:**

I'd like to give an excuse for this taking a year to do, but I have none.

This is kind of crap so I'll probably rewrite it later.

Just as Eridan had been finishing his tale of how he had met the first of many grubs, a small noise caught the attention of everyone. At the doorway to the next room there stood a little lime grub who seemed quite upset over something. Maybe it was the mass of strangers surrounding his caretaker, or maybe is was that he had tripped while trying to peek into the room, who could be sure? No matter the cause, the grub was quietly whimpering with pleading eyes aimed at his caretaker. Nobody moved for spoke for a few seconds, most of the trolls had no clue what they should do.

Feferi's gaze shifted from the grub to Eridan, he looked like he was about to do something stupid.

Before she could try and stop him, Eridan moved across the room, and much to everyone's surprise, scooped the grub up into his arms. Well aware that all eyes were on him, he gave the grub a small pat on the head and shushed it softly. It calmed down slowly in his arms while the other trolls looked on with mixed expressions. It was only once the grub was fully calm Eridan turned back to face them with a defensive expression on his face.

It was Sollux who finally spoke up. "ED... exactly how many grubth do you have?"

Eridan paused for a few seconds, glancing back towards the hallway where the grub had entered from. "Only 4, most Lucus I killed wwere wwild. It's just that evvery noww and again I slip up or there's not another choice. And one of 'em is a wwiggler noww so he helps take care of the others."

The room was silent, nobody really knew what they should be saying or how to react to this occurrence. Out of all the people to expect this sort of thing of, none of them would pin Eridan as the sort to break basically every unspoken rule that revolved around grubs. Technically, he hadn't broken any laws, but it was just common sense that you didn't bring a grub into your home unless you planned on eating it. Yet here Eridan was, standing with a tiny grub in his arms and clearly no intent for it's demise.

Everyone was at a loss as to what they should say or do, none of them had ever encountered this sort of thing. What were they supposed to do? Should they cull him? Would they be able to? The room was full of uneasy glances and shrugs, with the exception of Kanaya whose eyes were fixed on the grub in Eridan's arms.

Noting the lack of commentary from anyone else in the room, Eridan glanced back at her and realized what the look in her eyes was; envy. He considered his options for a few seconds before moving the little lime grub away from his chest and towards her.

"Wwould you like to hold her?"

It was silent for a few seconds, eyes changing between Kanya and Eridan. Nobody spoke, everyone was waiting for her reply to tell them how they should respond. Karkat opened his mouth, about to scream at Eridan about how crazy he was and how dare he try to drag Kanaya into his weird obsession when she spoke.

"If you wouldn't mind, yes I would."

Now, all the eyes in the room were firmly fixed on her, mixes of confusion and horrification were directed at her. Nonetheless, Eridan moved through the crowd and gentle placed the bewildered grub in her hands. The grub seemed upset at the lack of her caretaker's arms, but Eridan soothed him and Kanaya held her a little tighter. Moving a step back, he made his way towards the hallway further into the ship, talking as he went.

"I'vve got to go and check on the others, wwatch him for me, okay?"

The only reply he got was a nod as the jade blood seemed to caught up in gentle playing with the grub's feet. He left the room, leaving everyone else astonished and very, very confused. Tezeri was the first one to move, making her way over to Kanaya to mess with the grub, seemingly uncaring about Eridan actions. If anything, she was having fun with the scent of the other troll's confusion in the air. Feferi, who had up until this point been silent about the whole thing due to shock, seemed to wake up from her "the hell is going on" trance.

For how confused, angry and well let's face it mostly just confused, she was, Feferi didn't scream or yell. All she did was stalk out after him. None of the other trolls tried to stop her. They were only so suicidal after all.

Everything was quiet, with the exception of Kanaya very quietly cooing to the little one. Said quiet lasted for no less than a minute before panicked shouting came out of the other room. The remaining ten trolls glanced at each other for a second before Vriska gave a shrug and said "I'm going in there. Who knows what else he's been hiding from us." before hurrying out of the room towards where the two of them were fighting. It only took a couple of seconds for the rest of them to follow.

The scene they walked in on was one that they had never thought they would ever see.

In the room, Eridan was standing a few feet back from Feferi, his posture was defensive and his lips were curled back in a snarl. Feferi look outraged and as if she might snap and kill someone right then and there, but neither of these things were what caught their attention.

No, what was the biggest shock of that day, was the little, bright mutant red grub clinging onto Eridan who was clutching the tiny thing to his chest.


	3. Sollux and Captor

"Eridan. You. Cannot. Raise. Grubs. You are not a lusus and you most certainly cannot raise a MUTANT grub! What could have possible convinced you that this was a good idea?! What sopor has gotten into your thinkpan to make you unable of just acting like a normal troll and culling them?! Why is it, that everyone else here is smart enough to know better than to raise grubs, let alone a Mutant, expect for you?! Do you see Karkat ignoring all of common sense, breaking just about every law we might have and harboring a mutant like that?! No? What about Tezeri? No, because unlike you they've got some common sense in their pans." Feferi flew off the handle at Eridan, rage filling every speck of her being.

If she hadn't been so mad, then she might have noticed the way Karkat cringed and almost had to put his hand over his mouth to stop from making any noises to attract attention. Or the way Tezeri had to suppress her mad laughter at Feferi coincidentally choosing the one troll in the room who actually knew about Karkat's blood type. But more importantly, she might have noticed that rather than going shame faced, apologizing or trying to reason with her gently, Eridan was getting angry. He was getting very angry.

The little bright red grub in his arms gave a little squeak of alarm as Eridan's grip on them tightened. Eridan closed his slowly reddening eyes and took in a deep breath as he relaxed his grip on the little one. In a state of deadly calm that made even Tezeri uneasy, he released the breath before opening his now solid yellow eyes. Without saying a word to anyone, he stalked over to the doorway where Seahorsedad had poked his head in. Carefully he transferred the grub off of his shirt and into his Lusus' pouch before giving him a dismissive signal. The seahorse didn't seem happy about having to leave his original wiggler behind, but he went with only minor complaint. Once the little one was out of the room, he turned back to Feferi who was clearly starting to understand that she had crossed a line.

The violet blood took one more deep breath before he slowly and calmly began to speak, with a look in his eye that countered his tone. "First of all, her name is Niyuni and yes, I understand that this is probably a bad idea, and that I'm breaking laws that literally no one cares about, but I'm going to keep doing it. Because if I don't those grubs will die. And I will not let that happen."

Feferi stood in silence for no less than a minute, facing Eridan down. The two seemed to be interlocked in a very inefficient staring contest that would never end because seadwellers didn't blink. Several times she looked as if she were about to say something before finally coming to the realization that there was nothing she could do here. Once that conclusion had been reached, she turned and without a word said, stormed out of the hive straight into the water.

Nobody else was feeling up to commenting on his collection either, so they also remained silent. After a little while, some of the trolls having decided that there was clearly no more need for a wiggling day celebrate, headed for the boat waiting on the edge of his island. The only exceptions to this rule were Karkat, who wanted to learn more about the little mutant grub, Gamzee who wanted to wait for Karkat, Kanaya, who nobody was willing to ask to leave the little grub behind due to a fear of her chain saw and Sollux who had been coerced into staying by Karkat so he could transport the other trolls back.

The four remaining trolls stood in Eridan's hive, he glanced up at them before seemingly decided that he was too done to deal with them, and that they probably weren't a threat before stalking out of the room to check on the other grubs. It was a little awkward for all of about four minutes in which none of them were quite sure what to say. Well, more accurately, Karkat didn't know what to say. Kanya was cooing over the little lime grub in her arms, Gamzee had spaced out in the corner and Sollux was trying to figure out why he had thought staying was a good idea. After said four minutes had elapsed with Karkat being on the verge of bursting, something happened. Well, two somethings.

In through the door that Eridan had exited= those four minutes ago, flew two yellow grubs, both with red and blue psionics crackling around them. They seemed to be immersed in a game of tag with each other, ignoring the trolls below. In the few seconds it took for the other trolls in the room to get over their stunned silence, Eridan burst into the room after them, shouting without thinking.

" SOLLUX, CAPTOR, GET OFF THE CEILING."

A/n:

Sorry this is shit. Also OOC Feferi because my plot doesn't work otherwise, so I would like to say sorry to her too. Names for any of the grubs exempting Sollux and Captor were from a name generator.


	4. Chapter 4

The two little grubs that had been floating around on the ceiling turned to look at their caretaker with a caught look in their eye. Slowly they floated down towards Eridan until he was able to pluck them out of the air one right after another. He curled the two up against him, pulling his cape up to wrap around them. The other trolls in the room all looked at him with looks of surprise. Eridan looked at them with a 'welp' expression on his face before he began talking slowly.

"I should probably explain."

With his surprise turning to mild anger, Sollux narrowed his eyes and answered.

"You think?"

It took a second for Eridan to collect his thoughts, but once that second was gone he started again, his voice slow and with an almost guilty or embarrassed tone to it.

"I took these twwo in after I killed their lucus by mistake. I wwas a feww a swweeps younger back then an' I wwasn't as good at namin' things an' I couldn't think of a name for 'um. It wwas about the same time as I meet in person Sol and kneww he wwas a psionic so somehwow I got it into my head that it'd be funny to name 'em after him. The one wwith more blue sparks is Sollux and the one wwith more red ones is Captor."

As they heard their names, the little grubs perked up, looking at Eridan with expectant eyes, waiting for some other words to make sense of. The violet blood glanced down at the two of them and made a soft cooing sound that seems to pacify them.

Karkat, who by this point had recovered, looked from Sollux to Eridan for a moment and burst out laughing. By the time Sollux had enough of himself back to be indignant. Kayana had joined him with some softer giggles and Karkat was doubled over with his laughter.

The grubs had opposite reactions to the laughter, Captor hovered himself up and moved over to investigate the noise, while the younger Sollux panicked and scrambled his way out of Eridan's arms and away from the noise. Which happened to be towards the elder Sollux. Who he happened to run into. Right smack in the face.

Before Eridan could move to rescue the little grub, Sollux had grabbed the little one out of the air and was holding it in front of his face to inspect it. For a moment or two, he considered crushing the thing, but it's horns caught his attention. Much like him, the little grub had a set of two horns on either side of their head, but with little zigzags, that looked exactly like….

For a few horrified seconds, Sollux thought that this must have been the result of some drunken mistake, despite the fact he wasn't old enough to contribute genetic material, and he'd never been drunk anywhere near Eridan. His eyes went wide in a comical fashion and he looked over at the seadweller in confusion.

Having had a similar reaction when he had noticed the horns, Eridan strood over and snatched the little grub out of Sollux's hands before reassuring him in an exaggerated voice.

"Don't wworry Sol, it's just a dumb coincidence. There's nevver been a time wwhere I wwas drunk enough to think that wwould be a good idea."

Sollux still seemed unsure, anyone would be given the resemblance, but he let the subject be.

All five trolls spent the day hanging around Eridan's hive, with Kayana learning about the care and keeping of grubs, Karkat getting a serious lecture from Eridan after he learned of the other's mutation and gills and Sollux getting a headache over the two little yellow-blooded grubs who had taken a liking to him.

A/N:

I'm ending the story here because I really don't have anywhere to take it plus I want to start new ones.


End file.
